The present invention relates in general to data processing systems, and in particular, to the management of network file systems.
A Network File System (xe2x80x9cNFSxe2x80x9d) is a distributed file system of files and directories located on remote computers within a network. Using NFS, one can manage remote files and directories as if they are local, mount referenced files systems, configure security options, manage mount properties and establish access permissions for hosts.
Mounting makes file systems, files, directories, devices, and special files available for use at a particular location. It is the only way a file system is made accessible. A mount command instructs the operating system (OS) to attach a file system at a specified directory. Thus, a mounted file system or directory permits mounting on a client machine which gives the client access to the directory of files at different locations. Such a mount command is used in UNIX systems, but is also available with other operating systems, such as Windows NT.
Currently, such mounted file systems or directories are registered in that information, characteristics or attributes about the file system or directory are recorded, and can thus be altered. For example, such attributes can be whether the directory is mounted at boot up, is read-only, read/write, or includes echos.
The prior art only provides an ability to manage two types of mounted file systems, registered but not mounted, and registered and mounted. What is not available in the art is an ability to manage mounted but not registered file systems.
The present invention addresses the foregoing need by providing an icon in a graphical user interface so that a user may manage a mounted but not registered file system or directory in a manner similar as provided for registered but not mounted and registered and mounted directories. This would permit a user to mount a file system temporarily while implementing a graphical user interface icon to promote management of such a temporary file system. More specifically, the system merges a list of registered NFS mountable file systems and a list of NFS mounted file systems and removes duplicate entries. For each entry in the list, if the entry is not a registered NFS mountable file system, then a new icon is displayed for the unregistered and mounted file system to permit its management by the user.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention.